As is known in the art, there is degradation in the performance of two-dimensional (2D) Air Surveillance Radars (ASR) when tracking aircraft near or above windfarms and when providing coverage at low elevation angles for targets such as ground targets, marine vessels, low flying aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and the like. It is also challenging for these 2D radars to provide an estimate of the height of a target.
The presence of windfarms within the field of view of primary surveillance radars (PSR) degrades performance since echoes originating from these structures can have similar characteristics to those of an aircraft (including Doppler signature) and can be significantly stronger in amplitude. If not removed, these unwanted echoes can result in false tracks, missed tracks, track seduction and false weather.
Conventional attempts to mitigate the effects of wind farms include Sensitivity Time Control (STC), Range Azimuth Gating (RAG), Track Initiation Inhibit, Velocity Editing, and Plot Amplitude Threshold (PAT). Other known systems use discrimination techniques applied at pre-detection, detection and post detection stages of the radar signal processing chain. However, some of these known techniques may reduce radar sensitivity.
It is noted that in the United States wind energy currently provides about two percent of U.S. power generation. There is a plan to increase this to twenty percent by the year 2030. Unfortunately, there is a relatively high correlation between the location of windfarms and ASR radar sites. Thus, there is a need to address the performance degradation of ASR radars in the vicinity of windfarms.